No Sleep Tonight
by lpf
Summary: A fanfic on HxH's number one cutie, the tired 200th floor HA employee. Felt compelled to write her a backstory. Enjoy!


Sapin didn't bother going to bed. She was exhausted and did not have any work left to do for either Heavens Arena or Vox, but she could tell her body would not concede one minute of sleep—too much had happened that day. Half of Floor 245 had blown up in a particularly explosive fight, and she ended up having to use her ability in the confusion. Sapin just put on her uniform.

One o'clock. An early morning for her café. _Let's see if anyone comes by tonight,_ Sapin thought.

Sapin unlocked the door and turned on the light. She stood behind the bar, eyes shut. Meditating did not do the fatigue any good, but it gave her the willpower to carry on. It was two sixteen when Sapin sensed the first customer's arrival. She turned on the coffee machine.

"Good evening!" the customer said. It was a young customer with bushy eyebrows, wearing a martial arts uniform.

"Sure is, isn't it?" Sapin said. "What will you have? On the house."

"Really? Thank you so much. Milk tea, please. I didn't expect anything to be open this late."

"What business might the star of Floor 230 have down on Floor 199 in the wee hours of the night?"

"I did come here because I heard you opened at night," he admitted. "I'm surprised you know about me. I wouldn't call myself a star at all."

"Part of the job description," she said with a laugh.

Sapin served the young man's tea and poured herself a coffee. They drank while looking through the large window. The city lights seen from above the clouds looked like a a second set of stars in the skyscape.

The fatigue was wearing Sapin down, but she was used to it.

"Sleep did not find me tonight," the customer said.

 _How innocent._ "Be thankful sleep was looking for you to begin with. It's your first time here. Did something happen?"

"It's my teacher. He is the only family I have. I thought something was troubling him lately, but now I know why.

He continued. "Today he asked me if I wanted to become his son." Tears formed in his eyes.

"My, my! How wonderful. Is it what you want too?"

"I am overjoyed. So much that I can't sleep." He sighed. "And I have an important fight tomorrow. I think I am in danger. My teacher is sure that, believe it or not, my opponent uses a die that grants great fortune nineteen out of twenty rolls."

She knew what it was. Risky Die. Roll one of the nineteen Stars and get a surge of good luck. Roll the one Skull and get catastrophic misfortune. Hadn't that genius Hunter acquired all extant specimens and consigned them to Greed Island?

Sapin gazed at the window, thinking about the upcoming day. The customer had gone to sleep and left a tip one tea's worth. Once clouded in the night, the city became sunlit again, and Sapin sensed her morning shift employee arriving. Six o'clock had come.

"Hello, Jeanne. I'm letting you have the café for yourself today," Sapin said in a tired voice.

"Sure, boss. Your other job again?"

"Something like that. Thank you, you're a lifesaver."

The man up against that night's customer was a fellow named Durmien Rel. A cruel Enhancer who trained in the Floor 245 dojo every morning from six to eight. Knowing all nen users that came and went by the Arena was part of Sapin's job as an agent for Vox. And if this one did possess an artifact like Risky Die, then recovering it was even more so part of her job.

She opened the door to Durmien's quarters using her pass. As she entered, she saw him at the back of the room rolling a 20-faced die. Durmien looked up at Sapin with a horrified look on his face.

 _Damn it! Of all days you chose to stay home! I knew I should have waited for the duel._ The man took on a fighting stance and prepared to charge. _Guess I won't be getting any sleep tonight either..._

"My slumber to yours."

As soon as she had uttered it, the man fell on his back, fast asleep. That was one night of sleep she traded to put one person out cold. The man would wake up in fifteen minutes, not remembering what had happened. _But screw that_ , she thought.

Sapin drew the concealed knife at her ankle and, in one clean stroke, slit Durmien Rel's throat.

Feeling satisfied and—for the first time of the day—lively, she walked up to the Risky Die and picked it up.

Durmien had rolled a Skull.


End file.
